Search efforts honoured by the Malaysian Prime Minister

The hundreds of men and women involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were today recognised for their efforts by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

They spoke to personnel at RAAF Base Pearce, the hub of the aerial search, where they honoured the efforts of the eight nations involved.

“It was a very heart-warming experience to be introduced to the leaders of the various countries—from China, from the United States, from New Zealand, from Japan, from the Republic of Korea, from New Zealand and of course from both Australia and Malaysia,” Prime Minister Najib said.

“I know it is a daunting task to go out there in very inclement weather, in very challenging circumstances. Malaysia is indeed grateful for your courage and for your commitment.”

Prime Minister Najib also announced that Australia had accepted its invitation to participate as an accredited representative in the investigation and would continue to work closely together to draw up a comprehensive agreement on the search.

The search area is being continually adjusted and today it moved north.

At the end of the day, ten aircraft and 9 ships were involved in search activities.

Three aircraft searched in the southern search area of 248,000 square kilometres, 1700km west north west of Perth.

The Royal Navy hydrographic ship HMS Echo also operated in the northern area searching for sonic transmissions from the flight data recorder. One alert was experienced but discounted. False alerts may be experienced from biological sources such as whales or interference from shipping noise.

There have been no sightings of any objects reported today (as at 1930 AEDT).

Weather in the search area was fair, with visibility approximately 10 kilometres.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau continues to refine the area where the aircraft entered the water based on continuing ground-breaking and multi-disciplinary technical analysis of satellite communication and aircraft performance, passed from the international air crash investigative team comprising analysts from Malaysia, the United States, the UK, China and Australia.